The Call of The World
by r.k.Oujirou
Summary: DISCONTINUED. Ranma and .Hack/G.U. crossover. After being continually pestered by a friend, Ranma Saotome finally gives "The World R:2" a chance. What he'll find waiting for him is a virtual adventure that he'll never, ever forget.
1. Welcome to The World

_**The Call of "The World"**_**  
by rkOujirou**

Author's note: This is an alternate universe Ranma ½ story that takes place in The World R:2 sometime after the events of .Hack//Roots, the .Hack//G.U. Games, and the Returners anime episode.

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is not my idea, nor is .Hack//G.U. The only characters I'll claim are any OC's I may add into this story. Just so you know.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Master Yata! Master Yata!"

Inside a digital room filled with screens displaying scrolling lines of text, a woman with pink pigtails frantically ran toward a bald, dark-skinned man who was busy browsing through game logs.

"What is it, Pi?" Yata asked. The man dressed in a maroon robe had his hand placed over a golden orb that acted as the main terminal for what was known as the Serpent of Lore, a system used to investigate bugs and monitor certain players, among other things.

The woman named Pi quickly brought up onto a screen a log file that had caught her attention. "Please look at this!"

Looking over the lines of text, Yata's eyes narrowed slightly as something caught his attention. "Another instance of PC altering?"

"Exactly, just like the other two we've been monitoring," Pi explained with concern in her voice. "Master Yata, what could be causing this? I thought AIDA weren't disrupting The World anymore..."

"True. Although we know AIDA still exist within The World, they don't appear to have any malicious intent," Yata replied, folding his arms over his chest as he tried to calmly analyze the situation. "I still believe the most likely scenario is that the players are illegally altering their own character data, but we've yet to find any irrefutable evidence of that."

The controversial system administrator took a deep breath and skimmed over some more of the file just brought to his attention. "This character was just created recently. Did you set up a check program?"

"Yes, based on the similar pattern we observed in the other two instances," Pi replied, adjusting her glasses slightly. "Should we take action?"

"No. For now, we will continue to observe their actions," Yata told her. "Pi, please continue to watch for more cases of these altered characters."

"Yes, sir," she answered obediently.

The woman with pink pigtails bowed politely and walked out of the room, leaving Yata to himself. Intrigued by the arrival of the new anomaly, he brought up two more text-filled screens next to the one Pi had just brought to his attention.

"It's been extremely quiet since the Cubia incident was resolved," Yata said, a faint smile crossing his face.

"A Chaotic PK, a high-ranking member of Kestrel, and now a newly created Tribal Grappler. What is it that links all of you together, I wonder?"

* * *

Inside the round, green-colored Dome in the virtual city of Mac Anu, there were a number of players standing around conversing with each other when a male character with a black pigtail warped in next to the Chaos gate. Seemingly unfamiliar with the game, he looked around at the other players for a moment and began scratching his head.

"So this is The World, huh?" he said to himself.

The boy's name was Ranma Saotome. He was a skilled martial artist in the real world, but a complete newbie when it came to online games. In fact, he never would have even considered trying "The World R:2" had his close friend not been bugging him about it constantly.

Curious about how his character design had turned out, Ranma took a quick glance down at his clothing and was pleasantly surprised by the result.

"Hey, nice..."

Just like he'd chosen, he had a mostly white outfit including boots and pants with black lining, a sleeveless, leather top, and a white gauntlet on each hand. He also had a red streak going down the front left side of his dark hair, which was barely noticeable out of the corner of his eye.

Shifting his gaze to his limbs, he then noticed something odd about his right shoulder area.

"The heck's this?" he wondered, poking at a red tattoo on the shoulder that looked like a giant flame. It wasn't something he remembered adding, but it wasn't all that important, he figured.

Wandering around the circular room some more, Ranma noticed a bulletin board by a set of double doors that read simply, "Welcome to Mac Anu."

"Well, least I know I'm in the right place," he mumbled, recognizing the name of the city from some detailed directions he was given. "Guess I'll go try to find Yuuichi-"

"Move it!!"

The pigtailed boy blinked as he suddenly heard what sounded like a girl yelling from outside.

Out of nowhere, the doors then burst open and a girl with red hair down to her shoulders stormed into the Dome. She had black pants with an orange sash tied around her waist and a revealing, sleeveless black top with a white, fan-like accessory on the back.

"Look out! Coming through!" she shouted. Unfortunately, her eyes were focused on whatever was behind her, and she didn't happen to see the unseasoned player standing in her way.

With a loud thud, the girl slammed into Ranma, knocking the both of them to the ground.

"Ow! What in the-?!" she growled, glaring down at the pigtailed boy beneath her. "Watch where you're going!"

"H-huh?!" Ranma stammered, still trying to shake off his surprise. "Hey, you ran into me!"

The two of them went silent when they heard a man's yelling coming from outside the Dome and growing closer by the second.

"Alkaid, my love! There is no need to run from the magnificent Tatewaki Kuno!" the man shouted, his voice laced with passion for the girl as he ran into the Dome. "Now, let us go to the Isle of Kings and join together in...holy...matrimony..."

Clearly annoyed, the girl named Alkaid stared up at the brown-haired man with a furious look in her eyes. "Would you leave me alone already, you creep?! I told you I'm not interested!"

Tatewaki Kuno, dressed in dark pants and a decorative, loose-fitting, white and navy blue coat that was open at the front and ran all the way down to his feet, seemed aghast as he looked down at the sight on the Dome's floor. "My love...what is the meaning of this? Who is that man?!"

Glancing down again, the confused redhead realized that she was practically laying on top of the pigtailed boy with one hand pressed to the ground on each side of his head.

This was an embarrassing situation, she thought. Alkaid certainly didn't want the image of a flirt attributed to her name. On the other hand, she quickly noted, this might be a good chance to get the arrogant Kuno to leave her alone.

With a devious grin, the girl wrapped her arms around Ranma's head and clutched him to her chest. "This is my man, and he's a lot more of a man than you are!"

"What?!" the two men exclaimed simultaneously.

Not wanting Ranma to blow her story, Alkaid leaned in close to him and gave him a sharp look as she whispered into his ear. "It's your fault I couldn't ditch this guy, so you'd better go along with this. Got it?"

The puzzled beginner couldn't believe what he was getting dragged into, and hardly a minute after logging into the game at that. The attitude of the arrogant man standing near the Dome entrance, however, was beginning to get to him, and somewhere deep in his heart he really felt like sticking it to the guy.

"You owe me," he muttered to the red-haired girl.

"Is this true?!" Tatewaki Kuno yelled, demanding some clarification from the newbie in white clothing.

Reluctantly, Ranma wrapped his arm around Alkaid's midsection and smirked up at her pursuer. "Sorry, man. She's taken already."

Feeling enraged as other players in the Dome watched the spectacle with amusement, the man in the long coat angrily pulled out a sword resembling a katana and pointed it down at the one who he believed had stolen his love interest. "How dare you?! You...you fiend! You are not worthy of Alkaid's love!"

"Deal with it, you big crybaby!" Alkaid hissed venomously. "Stop embarrassing yourself and leave us alone!"

"Yeah, get lost," Ranma added, continuing to play along with a hint of enjoyment.

The sword wielding Kuno was furious, but there was nothing more he could do right now, he realized. Defeated for the time being, he stepped over to the Chaos Gate and glared down at Ranma one last time. "Remember this, foul wretch! My name is Tatewaki Kuno, Blade Brandier extraordinaire and Emperor of the Arena's Demon Palace! For taking my love from me, I shall smite thee with the fury of a thousand suns! Mark my words!"

After making everyone endure his long declaration, the arrogant Kuno warped away, leaving Alkaid to breathe a sigh of relief.

"We done now?" Ranma asked the fiery redhead.

Looking aggravated as the onlookers began to go about their business again, the girl known as Alkaid quickly got to her feet and kicked Ranma in the gut.

"Hey!" the pigtailed boy shouted.

"That was humiliating!" Alkaid snarled down at him. After taking a deep breath, she seemed to calm down following her initial burst of embarrassment. "A-anyway, it got that annoying guy off my back for now, so I suppose it's okay."

"Good to hear," Ranma muttered sarcastically, slowly getting back to his feet. "You can thank me later."

"Like I'd thank you for that!" the redhead yelled back at him. "Just so you know, I've already got someone I'm interested in. So don't go getting any funny ideas!"

The newbie in white watched as Alkaid then walked over to the Chaos Gate in a huff.

"See ya 'round," she said, still looking a bit embarrassed as she gave a brief wave of her hand before disappearing to another map.

Not sure what to make of what had just happened, Ranma placed his hands on his hips and snorted in the direction of the gate.

"Man, what the heck was her deal?"

With the peculiar situation over and done with, the pigtailed boy decided to continue his search for his friend. Pushing open the doors leading out of Mac Anu's Dome, he began strolling down a long walkway toward the more populated part of the city.

As he looked around at the numerous other players he passed by, Ranma noticed that they seemed about evenly divided between males and females, which came as a surprise since he'd always imagined these types of games were mostly played by guys. Some players were difficult to differentiate between genders since they used beast race characters, and there could always be some weird guy that liked playing as a girl character, he figured, but it at least appeared to be a strikingly diverse population.

Once the real life martial artist reached the city's central area, he immediately noticed a number of tables and displays filled with items around a large fountain.

"This looks like what he was talkin' about..."

Scouring the area near the fountain, Ranma almost immediately was able to pick out the character he was looking for.

"Near the fountain and next to a dog-lookin' character with pink fur," he muttered, staring at a pair of players standing behind a table. "That matches so well it ain't even funny..."

The pigtailed newbie wasted no time walking over to the table and giving a funny look to a brown-haired male character with a long ponytail and a pale green outfit.

"Yo," he greeted him.

"Welcome!" a round, dog-like character replied, smiling happily. "Is there anything in particular you're looking for today?"

"Oh, I ain't shoppin', but thanks," Ranma answered, then turning his attention back to the taller of the two. "I just came to see Yuuichi here."

The boy with the ponytail looked curiously at the character in the white outfit for a moment before he began to recognize him. "Ranma?! Is that you?!"

"What's up, man?" Ranma laughed. "Your descriptions are dead on, y'know that?"

"I can't believe you actually logged in!" his friend beamed excitedly. "By the way, call me Silabus here. That's my in-game name."

"Silabus, huh? Alright, if ya want," the pigtailed boy shrugged.

The green Blade Brandier took a moment to analyze the character class his friend had chosen. "I see you went with the Tribal Grappler class. No surprise there."

"Hey, I'm a martial artist. After lookin' at the instructions, I figured this was probably the best fit," Ranma explained.

"That's true," Silabus laughed.

Standing next to him, the small beast character, dressed in a red and orange outfit with black suspenders, began tugging on the Brandier's shirt. "Hey, who's this guy, Silabus?"

"Oh, sorry about that, Gaspard!" he chuckled, pointing over at the pigtailed boy. "This is my friend, Ranma! And Ranma, this is Gaspard, a guildmate of mine. He's a Shadow Warlock, and he's also in charge of our guild's shop."

"Yo. Nice to meet ya," Ranma said, nodding his head at the rotund character.

"Nice to meet you too!" Gaspard replied excitedly. "Does this mean you'll be joining our guild?!"

"Actually, I never asked him about that," Silabus interrupted, rubbing the back of his head as he looked over at the white Grappler. "We're members of a guild called Canard that was created to help beginners get accustomed to The World."

"Really? Sounds like somethin' you'd do," Ranma casually noted. "So...you don't want me joinin'?"

The boy with the long ponytail seemed surprised at the remark. "No, not at all! We'd love to have you join us! I just wasn't sure you would want to..."

"I only came here 'cause you kept buggin' me about it. What else am I gonna do?" the pigtailed boy joked. "Count me in, man."

"That's great! Just a second," Silabus told him, toggling with something on his screen. "There! Did you get the guild invite?"

Seeing the prompt come up on his screen, Ranma chose to accept the invite right away. "Yeah, think that did it..."

"Yay! A new member!" Gaspard shouted with glee. "Welcome to Canard, Ranma!"

"Yeah, thanks," the Grappler said, not quite as enthused as his new guildmate. "How many people you guys got in this guild?"

Somewhat ashamed, Silabus held up three fingers in response. "Just us three, actually..."

"What? Seriously?" Ranma asked, sounding disappointed.

"Well, our last guild leader, Haseo, still drops by from time to time, but he's usually busy with Atoli in real life," his friend explained.

"Atoli?" the pigtailed boy asked.

Thinking about his two old allies, Gaspard began giggling to himself. "His girlfriend."

"Ohh, I get it," Ranma chuckled. "Well, that's fine. We gonna go fight stuff or what?"

"Sure! Nothing like a guild outing to get you acquainted with The World," the beast-like Warlock answered approvingly.

"Yeah, sounds good," Silabus said in agreement. "The busy time of day is almost over, so we'll close the guild shop soon. Why don't you take a look around the rest of Mac Anu until we're done, Ranma?"

"Alright, think I'll do that," the newly created Grappler said, giving a brief wave of his hand as he started to walk off. "See ya in a bit."

"Oh, hold on a second!" his brown-haired friend suddenly interrupted him.

Ranma blinked curiously as he heard a light dinging sound. "What was that noise?"

"I sent you my member address," Silabus told him. "Just accept it. That way I'll be able to message you when we're done."

"Oh, good idea!" Gaspard said. "I'll send you mine too."

Hearing another dinging sound, Ranma toggled with his controls and eventually accepted both of the addresses.

"Alright, got 'em," the pigtailed boy said, turning and heading out again. "Don't take too long."

* * *

Elsewhere, standing on the bridge at the Arche Koeln Waterfall, a girl with short, pink hair silently watched the streams of water falling in the distance. Dressed in a black corset, stockings, and a round hat with a tassel on one side, she always enjoyed coming to this area because of its feeling of tranquility.

The map was a Lost Ground, its existence not known of by most players, and because of this it was a rarity for anyone to disturb the girl. So when she began hearing the sound of footsteps behind her, she immediately turned to see who it could be. The sight of the visitor's round, orange sunglasses was all it took to put a smile on her face.

"Ovan..." she mouthed, surprised but happy to see her friend again.

The man with short, light blue hair, a white and blue coat, and a blue scarf flowing from around his neck smiled as he walked up next to her. "It's been a while, Shino."

The girl in the corset nodded and shifted her gaze to the waterfall once again. "How is Aina doing?"

"She's never been happier," Ovan replied, speaking of his little sister. "And you?"

"You know how I am," Shino said to him.

The man behind the sunglasses chuckled a bit at the response. "I suppose so."

The two seasoned players of The World were quiet for a minute, taking in the feel of the area like old times, before Shino spoke up again.

"This world got quiet when Haseo stopped logging in as much," she said, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"That's true," Ovan acknowledged. "Things have started to get noisy though."

"You mean the fighting between Moon Tree and Kestrel?" the reserved girl asked.

"No..." he answered, a slight grin crossing his face. "Something unusual is happening within The World again."

Looking up at her friend with interest, Shino could see a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. "What is it?"

"Time will tell," Ovan told her.

Amused by her old acquaintance's typical cryptic answer, the pink-haired Harvest Cleric looked back out at the falls and giggled a bit. "You haven't changed at all."

Laughing to himself, Ovan gazed down at her and smiled.

"Sorry for that..."

* * *

After exploring Mac Anu on his own for about half an hour, Ranma eventually wound up in the Alchemist District of the city. He'd talked to a few NPC's along the way and scoped out the shops, although not much of anything made sense to him yet.

Starting to become impatient, the pigtailed boy leaned over the district's bridge and began staring down into the canal below.

"I wish those guys would hurry up. This is gettin' boring," he groaned.

It was then that Ranma heard what sounded like an angry grunt coming from his left side. Peeking over to see what made the noise, he noticed that a female character with short, turquoise colored hair and a similar colored star-shaped tattoo on her left cheek had leaned against the bridge's railing next to him.

Dressed in a greenish-blue corset with a white flap running down her back from each of its shoulder straps, along with a pair of knee-high white boots, she turned and looked back at him with an annoyed scowl on her face.

"Hey, you," she addressed him, sounding none too pleased. "You're a guy, aren't you?"

Ranma quirked an eyebrow at the girl, having no idea what she wanted from him. "Uh...yeah?"

"Then explain something to me!" she demanded, jumping up and getting in his face. "Why is it that every time a guy sees a girl Harvest Cleric, namely ME, he tries flirting with them?!"

The Grappler in white narrowed his eyes at the girl, not appreciative of being lumped in with the members of his gender with out of control hormones. "Beats me. I thought they only hit on cute girls."

"Excuse me?!" she growled. "Would you mind repeating that?!"

"Yeah, I would, actually," Ranma answered, brushing it off as he rested his chin on his palm. "Why don't you just go along with it and sweet talk 'em into givin' ya free items and stuff? I've heard lots of girls do that in these types of games...umm...?"

"It's Akane," the girl said, hopping up and taking a seat on the bridge's railing. "Jeez, you sound just like my sister. I don't want free items, I just want to have fun and be treated normal..."

"Hmm...makes sense," the pigtailed boy said. He didn't care for her hostility toward male players, but he did sort of admire the fact that she played for the experience and not for the items.

"What's your name again?" Akane asked him.

"Huh? Oh, it's Ranma," he said.

The turquoise-haired girl turned her head away from him, starting to look upset again. "I bet you hit on girls in your parties too."

Ranma looked up at her and blinked several times in confusion. "What the heck's a party?"

"What's a party?!" Akane asked, spinning around and staring at him in disbelief. "What are you, a newbie?! How long have you been playing?!"

"For like an hour. Get off my back," Ranma snorted in his defense.

Curious, the short-tempered girl looked down at the gauntlets on his hands and began snickering. "Oh wow, those are the lowest level gauntlets in the game! You really are a newbie, aren't you?!"

"Would you quit callin' me that?!" the Grappler snapped. He hated being belittled by anyone, even if he really was new.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Akane laughed, her demeanor seeming to brighten up a bit. "So, what are you doing just standing around here?"

"Just waitin' for a buddy of mine to close his shop or whatever," Ranma replied with a deep sigh. "Wish he'd hurry up already..."

"Ohh, so you already know someone here. Well, that should make it easier for you," the Cleric smiled. "You know, if you want-"

"HAHAHAAAA!!"

The sudden booming laughter of a man in gold plated armor made both Ranma and Akane jump and startled pretty much everyone within hearing distance. Running along the bridge with incredible energy, he stopped and folded his arms across his chest, posing proudly as he stared out at the number of players before him.

"Fear not, players of The World! Piros the 3rd is always looking out for you!" he shouted soundly before running off. "Play on, my friends! Play on!"

Next to the bridge's railing, Ranma and Akane were left stunned by the sheer stupidity of what they'd just witnessed.

"What in the heck was that all about?" the white-clothed Grappler asked.

"Who knows," Akane muttered. "There's all sorts of weirdos playing this game."

A moment later, the turquoise-haired character seemed to stop for a moment as she was distracted by something going on in the real world.

"What's up?" Ranma asked, noticing her unusual behavior.

"Oh, sorry. My sister was calling me to dinner," Akane answered, hopping down from the railing. "I have to go eat."

"Dinner, huh? Alright," the pigtailed boy said, shrugging as he stared down at the canal again.

Akane looked torn as she stood on the bridge, trying to decide whether she really wanted to do something or not. Then, after a good ten seconds of inner struggle, she finally gave in and turned back toward the newbie Grappler.

Hearing a familiar ringing sound, Ranma curiously peered back at the Cleric standing behind him. "What's this?"

"My member address," she smirked, folding her hands behind her back as she strolled away. "You're kind of a jerk, but you're still more tolerable than most guys. And seeing as how I'm such a nice person, I figure I could help a newbie like you out if you ever need it."

"H-hey, I never asked for-!" Ranma began to say, but Akane was already in the process of logging off.

"Buh-bye!" she waved, disappearing before his eyes in a flash of blue light.

Annoyed, the beginner threw his arms into the air and slumped himself over the bridge's railing again as he reluctantly accepted the address.

"Whatever. Loggin' off after gettin' the last word in like that," he grumbled, peering at the name "Akane" in his address list. "Like I need an uncute girl like that to help me out..."

For a few minutes, Ranma simply stood against the railing with his head resting on one hand again. Then, unable to wait any longer, he decided he was going to go back and coerce his new guildmates into closing their shop early.

When he turned around, however, he came face-to-face with a taller man dressed in blue and white. Being stared down at through a pair of orange sunglasses, the pigtailed boy was amazed that a character within a game could carry such an intimidating presence.

"You're...?" Ranma asked him nervously.

"Ovan," the man with light blue hair answered. "We will meet again."

With a slight grin, the unusual man turned and walked off as quickly as he'd appeared, leaving Ranma to wonder to himself just what he meant.

"Man, this place really is full of weirdos..."

* * *

**End of Chapter 1**


	2. Crushing Defeat

_**The Call of "The World"**_**  
by rkOujirou**

Author's note: This is an alternate universe Ranma ½ story that takes place in The World R:2 sometime after the events of .Hack//Roots, the .Hack//G.U. Games, and the Returners anime episode.

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is not my idea, nor is .Hack//G.U. The only characters I'll claim are any OC's I may add into this story. Just so you know.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Repth!"

His HP now replenished by Gaspard's healing spell, Ranma wasted no time speeding toward a red, lion-like creature that was busy charging a magic spell.

"No you don't!" he shouted.

The white-clothed Grappler managed to unload a three-punch combo on the monster before it could cast its spell, sending it reeling into a nearby rock ledge. With its HP gone, the creature fell to the ground and disintegrated, leaving Ranma the victor of another battle.

"Way to go, Ranma!" Gaspard cheered him on.

"You really seem to be getting the hang of things," Silabus complimented him.

"Yeah, I'm startin' to get used to it," Ranma said, spinning his arms around a few times to further get a feel for his character. "You guys can help out too, y'know. Ain't it boring just watchin' me fight?"

Silabus and Gaspard shared a knowing glance for a moment before Ranma's real-life friend responded to the inquiry.

"We're...at quite a higher level than you right now since we've been playing longer. Us hitting monsters like these even once would probably kill them," Silabus laughed. "Besides, helping beginners is what our guild is all about. Once you get the hang of the controls and raise your level a bit, then we'll go somewhere with stronger monsters where we can all get involved."

Ranma simply shrugged his shoulders and reluctantly accepted Silabus' answer. "I guess it's fine if you guys don't mind. Speakin' of your guild though, I've been meanin' to ask you somethin'."

"About Canard?" Gaspard asked, raising an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Well, I looked around the BBS a little while I was waitin' for you guys," Ranma said. "You said the leader of Canard was some guy named Haseo, right?"

"That's right," Silabus replied, wondering where his friend was going with this.

"He's a pretty popular guy, ain't he?" Ranma asked them.

Gaspard got a good chuckle out of the assessment of their guild leader. "Yup, he sure was! He made a name for himself by doing lots of different things."

"Okay then," Ranma said, scratching his head as he looked over at them. "So, why is it that you two are the only members of a guild with such a popular guy as its leader? As much respect as the guy gets on the BBS, I'd think he'd have tons of people wantin' to join his guild."

The novice Grappler's words hit Silabus and Gaspard hard. It was something they tried to avoid bringing up because of the sheer embarrassment it caused them.

"That's...well..." Gaspard paled.

"Haseo...he never actually got around to recruiting people into the guild," Silabus explained. "By the time things calmed down in The World after an incident we had, everything that happened had drained he and Atoli to the point that they just needed a break. We're always open to inviting new members, of course, but...well, we don't have anywhere near the charisma that Haseo had, so it's sort of tough for us to get people to join."

"So...you're boring?" Ranma asked.

Silabus and Gaspard slumped over further at the straightforward assessment.

"Basically," the small beast character replied, looking depressed.

"H-hey, I ain't complainin'! I just wondered is all," Ranma quickly said, trying to keep their spirits from sinking any lower.

Their conversation came to sudden standstill, however, as Ranma heard an indescribably odd noise coming from behind him. "What the heck...?"

When Ranma turned around, he spotted a small, horse-like creature strutting around a short distance away.

"What's that thing supposed to be?" he asked.

"Oh, that's a Lucky Animal. A Sleipnir, to be exact," Silabus pointed out. "Every map has a Lucky Animal, and there's different types of them that each do different things. Some give you experience points, money, or items, and others will help you out in battle. But to get them to use their abilities, you have to kick them first."

Ranma promptly turned his attention back to the creature. "Okay, so all I gotta do is kick this thing?"

"Exactly!" Gaspard said.

With a devious smile crossing his face, Ranma stormed over to the Lucky Animal with every intention of booting it into oblivion. "I can do that!"

Unfortunately, the creature had raised its head and seen the white-clothed Grappler coming toward it, and it had the presence of mind to move just before Ranma's foot made contact with it.

"What?!" Ranma exclaimed. After missing his target, he promptly lost his balance and fell to the ground on his back.

"Oii, he missed it," Gaspard cringed, placing his palm over his face.

Thoroughly humiliated, Ranma sat up and slammed his fists against the ground. "What the heck was that?!"

"I forgot to mention it, but they will try to run away if you come after them," Silabus explained while trying extremely hard to keep from laughing. "Why don't you go after it? It should help you get the hang of the controls a bit more."

"Oh, I plan to!" Ranma snarled as he got to his feet. "Come here, you little runt!"

The newest member of the Canard guild took off after the speedy Sleipnir, leaving Silabus and Gaspard with an opportunity to sit down and take a quick break from helping him train. Silabus knew about Ranma's martial arts background and the type of stamina he possessed in real life, but even in-game he seemed to have an endless amount of energy and desire to raise his character's level.

Although they had a feeling that Ranma might wear them out at times, Silabus and Gaspard were both still of the opinion that having him as their new guildmate was going to make things a little more fun from now on. It was just the excitement they needed in the absence of their highly regarded guild leader.

* * *

The town of Lumina Cloth, with its darkened sky and well-lit architecture, always had an energetic atmosphere surrounding it. It was home to the Arena, where players came to challenge other players in combat, and at the edge of the town stood the home for the guild known as Icolo, whose members were solely made up of the Arena's Emperors. Apart from a room reserved for the guild's leader, the Icolo home was merely one circular room lined with red carpet and banners, with steps leading downward to a flat area in the middle.

In the center of that area stood the current Emperor of the Arena's Demon Palace, Tatewaki Kuno. His eyes were closed as he rested both hands on the hilt of his drawn katana. The incident with the object of his affections, Alkaid, and the pigtailed character named Ranma had left him in need of some mental relaxation. Try as he might to meditate, though, he simply couldn't overcome the anger he felt.

His concentration again broken, the pompous Kuno opened his eyes and began slashing his sword through the air in frustration.

"Curse that man!" he shouted furiously. "I cannot forgive him for what he has taken from me! I...I must find out more about this Ranma!"

"Hello--!" a female voice cooed.

Aggravated by the interruption, Kuno spun around and pointed his katana toward the entrance to the guild home. "Who goes there?!"

With an amused giggle, a woman with pink hair running down to the base of her ear lobes strutted toward the Arena Emperor. She was dressed entirely in emerald green and had most of her upper torso exposed, with only one thick cloth tied behind her neck that ran down her chest on both sides to cover her breasts. From the waist down, she was adorned in a large skirt that split in two places on the front to expose the bottom of her legs.

"Why, it's only moi," she smiled.

"Nabiki," Kuno groaned, letting his sword fall to his side. "That Kestrel stench of yours defiles the sanctity of this room."

"Says the man who gave me my guest key to this place," Nabiki retorted, placing her hands on her hips.

The Blade Brandier shrugged in response as he reluctantly put his sword away. "What have you come here for?"

"Business, what else?" the pink-haired girl answered. "You see, I heard...that you were a bit embarrassed not too long ago."

A scowl crossed the face of Tatewaki Kuno as Nabiki walked up behind him and began talking into his ear.

"Your precious Alkaid, being held by another man in front of all those players," she whispered. "And all the while telling you to get lost. For a man like you with so much pride, I can't imagine how humiliating that must have been."

Nabiki made it a point to paint an excessively negative picture for the Arena Emperor, and she'd succeeded brilliantly in doing so.

Shaking with anger, Kuno spun around and glared into the eyes of the woman in green. "You! How do you know about that?!"

"Word gets around, Kuno baby," she replied calmly. "Speaking of which, that character that was with Alkaid in the dome...Ranma, right? I just so happen to know a little bit about him."

The attentive look on the Brandier's face told Nabiki that she'd caught his attention.

"In fact," she continued, a wicked smile coming over her, "I happen to know what map he's on at this very moment."

"What?!" Kuno shouted. A golden opportunity for revenge had appeared before him, he quickly realized. "Tell me this instant!"

Nabiki defiantly raised her hand into the air and began waving her finger back and forth. "You know how it is. Information...comes at a price."

The pink-haired member of the Kestrel guild didn't even need to hear Tatewaki Kuno's answer to know she'd made a sale. He was a man whose emotions were simple to read, and that made him the ideal client.

"How much?!"

* * *

Once her business deal was complete, Nabiki left the Icolo guild home and ran her hand through her hair as she casually walked along the illuminated road in Lumina Cloth toward the Chaos Gate in the middle of town.

"That was easier than I thought it would be," she laughed.

"Nabiki! There you are!"

Glancing to her left, Nabiki noticed a familiar turquoise-haired Harvest Cleric heading in her direction.

"Well hi there, Akane. What's up?"

"I've been looking all over for you!" Akane complained. "Where have you been?"

"Just conducting a little business," Nabiki grinned. "You need something, Sis?"

"Well...not really, I was just kind of bored. I thought maybe we could go party somewhere," the Cleric replied with hopeful eyes.

"Again? Why don't you ever find other people to party with?" Nabiki asked her.

Akane narrowed her eyes as she leered over at her older sister. "You know why I don't like doing that..."

"Oh, right. The boys," the girl in green replied with a sigh. "Well, I have some free time, so why not? Before that though, I need to go take care of something really quick."

"What do you need to do?" Akane asked curiously.

"Just give a little report to the old troll," Nabiki shrugged. "It shouldn't take too long. Just wait here for me."

After walking up to the Chaos Gate, Nabiki turned and glanced over at her younger sister once more. "Oh, Akane, did you meet a Tribal Grappler with a pigtail not too long ago?"

Confused for a moment, Akane placed a finger on her chin and tried to think of who she meant. "A Grappler with a pigtail....oh, you mean that newbie? Hey, wait! How do you know about that?!"

"Lucky guess," Nabiki joked. "A little sisterly advice, Akane. Stay away from that player. Otherwise, you're going to get caught up in something messy."

Before Akane could question her, Nabiki warped out of the town of Lumina Cloth to complete her errand.

"_Get caught up in something messy?_" Akane wondered. "_What's that supposed to mean?_"

* * *

Things were quiet inside the guild home of Raven, where Yata had his arms folded across his chest as he carefully eyed three enlarged screens he'd brought up at the Serpent of Lore. The guild, which consisted of himself, Pi, and a steamgunner by the name of Kuhn, had little of interest to look into since the destruction of Cubia. Until recently, that is.

The new player named Ranma was the third one known to have what looked like altered data in his character. Yata had diligently monitored the characters in the first two cases when they were brought to his attention, but he never saw anything out of the ordinary from either of them. Still, the emergence of Ranma as yet another case had piqued his interest enough to go ahead and monitor he and the others again for at least a short while.

"Master Yata..." Pi said as she walked up to him. "You're watching over all of them?"

"The chances of anything unusual happening are low, but the fact that a third case came up bothers me," Yata explained. "All three are online, but the only one active at the moment is Ranma."

The woman with pink pigtails focused her attention on the rightmost screen for a moment, only to see Ranma lose his balance and fall down after failing to kick the horse-like creature he was after.

"Do players normally have that much trouble with Lucky Animals?" Pi wondered aloud.

"Nothing is easy when you're doing it for the first time," the bald-headed man chuckled. "Did you find out anything new?"

Pi had to force herself to turn away from the almost comedic showing that Ranma was putting on. "Y-yes, actually. With regards to Ranma...he was apparently seen with Ovan in Mac Anu recently."

The mention of Ovan's name was enough to get Yata to turn away from the screens and glance back at his assistant. "Ovan? Have you confirmed this?"

"Not with complete certainty, but they were definitely both in Mac Anu at the same time," Pi replied, adjusting her glasses.

"I see," Yata said, turning his attention back to the three screens in front of him. "Pi, I want you to prioritize this data altering incident above everything else."

"Master Yata...?"

"Ovan would not involve himself unless this were something of an immense magnitude," the man in the maroon robe told her. "What I want to know is whether he's just curious...or if he knows something that we don't."

* * *

"I gotcha!"

As the chase continued on the low-level field, Ranma readied his right leg and took a mighty swing at the Sleipnir, but the tiny creature swerved to its right to avoid the kick and kept on running.

Ranma hadn't spent a ridiculous amount of time chasing the Lucky Animal without improving a bit though. After planting his foot back down on the ground, he swiftly pivoted to his right and took off after his target again.

"I'm gettin' better at this!" he grinned.

After its long run, the Sleipnir came to a halt and turned around to see how far back Ranma was, but what it found instead was a boot heading straight for its face. Barely managing to move out of the way in time, it frantically began running away again. Ranma closed in quickly, however, and forced it to make another erratic move to avoid a kick.

"Just...give...it...up!" Ranma shouted, swinging his foot at the creature several more times without any success.

After dodging the last kick, the Sleipnir suddenly ran out of room and slammed into the edge of the map. It quickly turned around to look for another direction to run, but instead found itself staring up at its almost demonic looking aggressor.

"Heh," the Grappler mouthed with a satisfied smirk. "I might not be perfect with these controls yet, but that don't mean I ain't good enough to corner ya. The jig's up, horsie."

Behind him, Ranma could hear the sound of footsteps, but he kept his eyes locked on the creature at his feet. "Hey, sorry guys. It took me a while. Finally got this thing trapped though..."

"I believe you are mistaken, Ranma."

Ranma recognized the voice, but it didn't belong to either Silabus or Gaspard, he realized. He curiously raised his head and looked back, only to find himself being stared down by a vengeful man wearing a blue and white coat and wielding a katana in one hand.

"As you should know, I am no friend of yours," the Arena's Demon Palace Emperor, Tatewaki Kuno, told him. "You were fortunate that we first met in town, where player killing is not possible. Otherwise I would have put you to shame right there in front of my love."

"Uh...oh, I remember now! You're that...no, wait..." Ranma said, fumbling over his words as he tried to remember the man in front of him.

"Yes...?" Kuno asked. After several seconds, he was already losing patience with the pigtailed boy not being able to remember him.

Ranma placed his hand over his forehead as he struggled to recall what the swordsman's name was. "Umm..."

"Tatewaki Kuno! I am Tatewaki Kuno, you twit!" the enraged Blade Brandier growled. "Not only do you steal the affections of my lovely Alkaid, but now you insult me like this?! I shall have none of it! The time has come to restore my honor, Ranma!"

"Whoa, whoa! Hold on a sec!" Ranma pleaded, holding his palm up in front of him. "Just let me take care of this horse thing first. Then I'll deal with you, alright?"

The white-clothed Grappler spun around to deliver his long awaited kick to the Sleipnir, but, much to his dismay, it had seemingly vanished.

"Wha-?! No! Where'd it go?!" he yelled, looking around in every direction in an attempt to catch sight of the Lucky Animal. It was nowhere to be found, though. The creature had taken advantage of Kuno's distraction to escape the dangerous scene.

With rage building up inside of him, Ranma turned and shot the Arena Emperor an icy glare. "You got any idea how long I'd been chasin' that thing?"

"I would not be concerned about such things if I were you!" Kuno snapped back at him. "Duel me this instant, Ranma!"

Ranma clenched his fists and began gritting his teeth together as he stared over at the determined Tatewaki Kuno. "Fine! You want a fight?! Bring it on, buddy!"

A look of ecstasy came over Kuno, who readied himself without hesitation and held his sword out to one side.

"Sword Flash!"

The Blade Brandier suddenly lunged forward with lightning quick speed, much faster than Ranma had been expecting.

"_He's fast!_" Ranma thought.

The inexperienced Grappler raised his fists and managed to get a punch in on the face of the agile Kuno, but a simultaneous strike to Ranma's abdomen from the Emperor's katana left him stunned and his HP empty. Downed after only a single blow, the colors on Ranma's character body turned to shades of gray as he slumped motionless to the ground.

With the one-sided battle already over, Tatewaki Kuno stood tall and proud while looking down at his fallen opponent. After putting away his sword, he then began cackling arrogantly at Ranma's body.

"The vengeance of Heaven has been carried out," he smirked.

"I...I lost...?" Ranma said in disbelief.

"Let that be a lesson to you, fiend! You are not worthy of Alkaid's love!" Kuno boasted as he turned and began walking away. "Never show your face before her again!"

Once the victor had taken his leave, Ranma was left to ponder the reality of what had just happened. He wasn't used to losing, especially to people like Kuno. In the real world, he would have won for sure, he thought. But this wasn't the real world. It was a virtual world. "The World." In here, both character level and mastery of the game's mechanics were vastly in Kuno's favor, and it showed.

It almost certainly wasn't a fight he could have won at this point, but being defeated like this still left Ranma feeling ashamed of himself.

"How?!" he fumed angrily. "How...could I lose to someone like that?!"

* * *

The Kestrel guild, known by many as the guild full of player killers, had a sense of freedom instilled in them like no other group in "The World." Their guild home, loaned out to them by CC Corp. because of their large number of members, was a map that looked like it was engraved into a canyon. Stone walls and broken pillars adorned the area, and at the entrance to the inner part of the guild home sat a throne carved out of rock.

The longtime leader of the Kestrel guild was known as Gabi, a beast race character with the face of a lion that towered over his subordinates with an intimidating presence and demanded loyalty. Not long ago, however, Gabi mysteriously vanished, leaving another to take control of the guild while he was away.

Sitting in his throne, the current Kestrel leader looked over the map as his subordinates interacted with one another. He was short and imp-like in his appearance with his pale green skin and horns that jutted out from a small patch of white hair on his head.

His name...was Happosai.

"I'm back, Boss..."

An anxious expression came over the Kestrel leader when he noticed the woman clad in emerald clothing walking over to him.

"Nabiki!" Happosai exclaimed. "How was it?! Did he do it?!"

"He took off for the map as soon as I told him," Nabiki smiled.

Happosai jumped up excitedly at the news. "Good! He must've PK'ed that Ranma for sure!"

"Probably," Nabiki said in agreement before clearing her throat. "You know, wouldn't it have been easier to just send one of the generals after him?"

"And give the system admins even more reason to watch over us?! Forget it!" the old man told her. "Now that he's been PK'ed, maybe he'll think twice about playing this game. Good work, Nabiki. I knew I could count on you!"

"Mmhmm. If that's all then, I'll be going," Nabiki replied as she began heading back toward the Chaos Gate. "I guess I'll never understand, though...why the leader of a powerful guild like Kestrel is up in arms about some newbie Tribal Grappler."

Once Nabiki was gone, Happosai sat back down and settled into his throne feeling much more relaxed than before.

"That newbie Tribal Grappler is more trouble than she realizes," he grumbled, holding his head in his hands. "I still don't understand why they all started showing up here. Everything should have gone perfectly. But when they did...I knew that darn Ranma would show up eventually!"

With memories of the past flooding back into his mind, Happosai slammed his fist down onto the armrest of his throne in frustration.

"I won't let you ruin my plans again, Ranma! Not this time!"

* * *

**End of Chapter 2**


	3. Emperor Kuno

_**The Call of "The World"**_**  
by rkOujirou**

Author's note: This is an alternate universe Ranma ½ story that takes place in The World R:2 sometime after the events of .Hack//Roots, the .Hack//G.U. Games, and the Returners anime episode.

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is not my idea, nor is .Hack//G.U. The only characters I'll claim are any OC's I may add into this story. Just so you know.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

"Let's go!"

Holding a golden dagger in each hand, the battle-loving, red-haired Twin Blade named Alkaid charged toward a towering monster with a halo above its head and sliced into it three times before vaulting off its arm to regroup.

Alkaid had little time to wait around as she saw the monster beginning to charge up for its next move. "I won't let you heal yourself!"

This particular type of monster was capable of healing, but as it turned out the move it was charging was an attack. With little warning, it bolted forward and slammed into the red-haired girl, sending her tumbling backward along the grass-covered ground.

Unshaken by the attack, Alkaid dug her palm into the earth until she came to a stop and then sprang forward to return the favor.

"Who do you think I am?! It's gonna take more than that to knock me out!" she yelled out with an exhilarated look on her face. "Take this! _Whirlwind!_"

The Twin Blade sped toward the monster and sliced into it with her left dagger, followed by her right. After three more alternating blows, she spun upward into the air, building momentum for a final strike. Then, once she came down to the ground again, she swung both of her daggers forward and struck the beast, who reeled from the impact.

Yet, despite Alkaid's efforts, the monster remained alive.

"You're tough, ain't ya?" she smirked.

Angered, the mammoth beast swung it's large arm at Alkaid, but she nimbly jumped up into the air and onto it's limb, running along it until she closed in on its head.

"It's over!"

With a powerful double strike from her daggers, the red-haired character knocked the monster off its feet and down to the ground. The beast's body soon dissipated into the air, signaling Alkaid's victory in the battle.

Satisfied with her win, the Twin Blade took a deep breath and let her daggers rest at her side.

"These things never seem to get easier to beat," she said to herself.

"Nor does it become any less enjoyable watching you defeat them, my love."

Alerted to the presence of an unwelcome visitor, Alkaid spun around and crossed her daggers in front of her, managing to catch a thin blade in-between them before it could strike her.

"Kuno!" she growled. "You even followed me here, you creep?!"

Alkaid thrust her weapons forward, forcing Kuno to make some distance between himself and his love interest as he and his blade were pushed back.

"Your fondness for this area is no secret," Tatewaki Kuno grinned, brushing his hair back out of his face. "How could I ever pass up the opportunity to observe your beautiful battles, or even...to experience them firsthand?"

In a flash, Kuno dashed toward Alkaid and swung his katana at the left side of her neck. The fiery woman wasn't to be taken lightly though. She easily blocked the sword with her left dagger and moved in close to dig into Kuno's chest with her other one, but the Blade Brandier escaped safely as Alkaid's dagger grazed only his coat while he jumped back.

The Demon Palace Emperor quickly regrouped, jabbing his blade forward in an attempt to pierce Alkaid's chest, but the nimble Twin Blade jumped up onto his sword and swung her right foot at Kuno's head, barely missing as the pompous man ducked out of the way. Unfortunately for Kuno, however, Alkaid was a master at putting together combo attacks. After missing her kick, she did a complete 360 degree turn in the air and swiped her right dagger at the Emperor again as she came down, catching him in the shoulder and doing significant damage to his health points.

Alkaid appeared displeased as she stared over at her wounded admirer, crossing her daggers in front of her chest again. "This is boring. Why don't you ever raise your character's level, Kuno?"

"And abandon my seat as Emperor? I think not," Kuno smirked.

The red-haired girl sighed with disgust and narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. "That's why you'll always be a weak man, because you can't let go of things like that."

Kuno remained unwilling to concede the scuffle. Gritting his teeth, he gripped the hilt of his katana tightly and jolted forth once again. "Show me your power, my love! _Sword Flash!_"

"You never learn, do you?!" Alkaid yelled back at him, readying herself for a counter-attack. "_Gale Blade!_"

In an instant, the two characters' blades clashed, sending sparks flying from the point of impact. Alkaid's strike was clearly the stronger of the two, pushing Kuno back slightly before he swung his katana again at incredible speed. This time, however, the experienced Twin Blade completely knocked Kuno's katana to the side with her left dagger, leaving him wide open. Already in position to attack, Alkaid twisted her body toward the blue-clad Brandier and took a ferocious swing at him with her right dagger.

Having felt plenty of Alkaid's strength already, Tatewaki Kuno decided he'd had enough enjoyment. Before the higher-leveled woman could strike her next blow, Kuno reached into his coat and used a Smoke Screen item, shrouding himself and everything nearby in a thick smog so that he could escape unharmed.

"You coward!" Alkaid scowled, running away from the smoke so that she could see again.

The sound of Kuno chuckling to himself could be heard as the smog began to clear. It wasn't long before he became visible again and Alkaid saw him put away his sword.

"Your technique is as impressive as ever," the Demon Palace Emperor smiled with amusement. "I must admit though, I did not come here today to do battle with you, my love."

"Then go away! Do you have any idea how sick I am of you following me all the time?!" Alkaid snarled at him.

"Patience, dear Alkaid. I know that in your heart of hearts, you truly admire my manly prowess," Kuno said, striking a pose for the object of his affections. "I only came here today to inform you that I have proven my manliness by defeating the one named Ranma."

Alkaid blinked as she looked over at Kuno, clearly confused as to what he was talking about. "Who...?"

"I said I defeated Ranma, the one you declared to be your man," Kuno explained. "I must say, I had thought the man you chose would be considerably stronger. It is no matter though. Now that I have proven myself worthy of your affection, wouldst thou date with me, my love?"

"In your dreams, maybe," the red-haired girl grimaced. Her eyes then widened as she began to remember who Kuno was talking about. "Wait a minute...Ranma....the guy in Mac Anu's Dome?!"

"Obviously," the Blade Brandier replied, curious about Alkaid's reaction. "Were your feelings toward him so weak that you forgot him?"

"N-no!" Alkaid stammered, realizing Kuno was onto her trick. "Look, would you leave already?!"

With a calm demeanor, the Demon Palace Emperor smiled a bit and shrugged his shoulders. "Very well, then, I shall depart for now. But fear not, my love, for I shall be in contact with you soon to request that date once again. In the meantime, if you have any other men that you wish for me to defeat, please...feel free to inform me of them."

Alkaid was furious as she watched Tatewaki Kuno walk away. Her ploy to get the arrogant Emperor to leave her alone had backfired and given him even more confidence in his pursuit of her.

"That FOOL!" Alkaid shouted, stomping her foot into the ground. "How hard is it to deal with someone like Kuno!? Really!"

Unable to calm down, the red-haired Twin Blade turned around and began storming toward one of the points on the map where she could warp back to town.

"I can't believe this! I'm gonna find that Ranma guy and give him a piece of my mind!"

* * *

"Thanks for your business!"

After completing the sale of a low-level accessory, the younger Canard member named Gaspard turned to his guildmate and beamed excitedly. "Wow, we've really been cleaning out our storage lately!"

"Good thing too, it really needs it," Silabus added. "It's good to have equipment and items when they're needed, but any more stuff and our storage would have maxed out."

Luckily for them, the presence of Canard's newest member, who was quietly sulking on the edge of Mac Anu's fountain, wasn't hindering their sales any. Nonetheless, they couldn't help but feel distracted by Ranma's frustrated demeanor.

"I'm gonna get that jerk..." the pigtailed character grumbled to himself.

While Gaspard continued trying to attract business, Silabus made an effort to try to calm his angered friend. "I know it's hard to deal with, Ranma, but PK'ers are a part of the game that everyone runs into eventually. If it happens, you just have to put it behind you and move on."

"Like hell I will!" Ranma fumed. "That Kuno guy...he shouldn't have beat me that easily! It pisses me off."

"You just started recently, Ranma. His character level and stats were much higher, as was his experience. There was no way you could beat him right now," Silabus explained to him. "Still, it is uncharacteristic of an Arena Emperor to PK a relative unknown like yourself, or to PK at all for that matter. Did you do something to make him mad?"

The man named Tatewaki Kuno had made it clear that his reason for challenging Ranma was the show that Alkaid had convinced the newbie Tribal Grappler to put on in Mac Anu's Dome when he first logged into "The World," but that wasn't a story Ranma felt like sharing anytime soon.

"It's just some stupid misunderstanding," he answered. "What's all this Arena and Emperor stuff anyway?"

"You don't know?" Silabus asked curiously, forgetting for a brief moment just how new Ranma was to the game. "Sorry, I guess that's to be expected. The Arena is a place where players go to battle against other players. It's located in the city of Lumina Cloth, and it's a pretty popular place. There's a lot of players who just go there to watch tournament matches."

"Tournament matches?" Ranma asked.

Silabus nodded. "The Arena is made up of the Demon Palace, the Holy Palace, and the Sage Palace, and each Palace has an Emperor. To determine who challenges for the Emperor's throne, tournaments are held regularly with the winners earning a match with the Emperor."

Based on what his friend had just told him, a makeshift plan for revenge began to spark in Ranma's mind. "So what you're sayin' is that if I win the tournament for that Demon Palace or whatever, I'll get a shot at that Kuno jerk?"

"Well, technically yes, but-" the Blade Brandier in green began to say, but he was quickly cut off by his enthusiastic guildmate.

"Alright! I'm totally gonna win that tournament!" Ranma jumped up and shouted. "Where do I sign up?"

"Ranma, it's not that simple," Silabus calmly explained. "People enter tournaments in teams of three. There's no way you can do it alone."

"Teams of three?" Ranma asked, quickly eying the two players next to him. "Well it's easy then, ain't it? Us three can join as a team."

The concerned look that appeared on Gaspard's face told Ranma otherwise.

Silabus noticed it as well, and wasted no time ruling out the possibility. "Actually, Gaspard doesn't get involved in the player versus player aspect of the game. But even if he did, it wouldn't matter in this case."

"Huh? Why's that?" Ranma blinked.

"Because the level limit for the Demon Palace is level 50, and both Gaspard and I are well beyond that," Silabus told him. "In fact, we couldn't even enter the Holy Palace tournament if we wanted to. If you want to enter, you'll have to find two team members that are level 50 or lower."

"Are you serious?" the pigtailed character groaned, somewhat dismayed by the fact that he would have to hunt for his own team members. "Man...alright, I'll do it somehow. Any tips on who I should pick?"

The longtime Canard member placed a hand on his chin as he mulled over his friend's question. "Well, our guild leader, Haseo, has been the Emperor of all three Palaces, and every time he entered a tournament, he used the same basic formula to win it. He's an Adept Rogue, a physical attack type like you, and his two team members were always a second physical attacker and a Harvest Cleric for healing, though a Shadow Warlock could handle healing as well."

"So two on offense, one for support, huh?" Ranma asked.

"That's right," Silabus nodded. "Remember though, in addition to finding team members, you yourself still have a lot to learn about the game's mechanics."

Ranma didn't need Silabus to tell him that he had improvements to be made. His one-sided battle against Kuno served that purpose just fine.

"Then how 'bout we go find a map and you teach me what I need to know?" he suggested. "C'mon, I'm ready for it!"

"Um...right now?" the brown-haired Brandier asked, peering over at Gaspard for a moment. "Well, Gaspard is minding the shop right now, and we'd need a healer to go to a more difficult map for you..."

"Excuse me."

The three Canard members noticed a shorter, blonde-haired character wearing a black backpack standing in front of the guild shop, and it was a character that both Silabus and Gaspard were familiar with. He had a mostly blue and green outfit, complete with shorts and an over-sized jester's hat, as well as some striped red stockings on his legs.

"Oh, hey! It's Sak...err, Bo I think, right?" Gaspard greeted him.

"Yes, that's right. I'm Bo," the child-like character replied.

"Hey there! Long time no see, Bo," Silabus smiled before gesturing toward the pigtailed Grappler next to him. "Bo, this is our newest guild member, Ranma. And Ranma, this is Bo, a Shadow Warlock. He's friends with Haseo and was our ally for a long time when "The World" was in trouble during a little incident."

The humble Bo bowed politely before Ranma. "Nice to meet you, Mister."

"Yeah, same here," Ranma said. "I don't suppose you're under level 50?"

"Hmm? No, not even close," Bo answered.

"Damn," Ranma muttered.

Laughing a bit at his friend's failed attempt to recruit the young Warlock, Silabus turned his attention back to Bo to see what he needed. "So, what can we do for you?"

"Well..." Bo began to say, nervously twiddling his fingers, "I was just wondering if Haseo was around?"

"I wish he were, but Haseo still hasn't come back from his break yet," Gaspard told him.

"Oh...alright," Bo said with disappointment evident in his voice. "I had some free time to play today, so I wanted to come see if he was here, that's all."

Noticing the young boy's downcast demeanor, Silabus figured it was worth a shot to offer him something else to do with his time. "You know, I was about to take Ranma here to train somewhere, and we could use a life-supporting character to tell you the truth. Would you be interested in coming along for a while?"

"Well..." Bo hesitated, glancing sheepishly over at the Grappler in white.

Ranma didn't know Bo at all, but he could tell that he seemed a bit on the shy side and needed a little push to join.

"Umm...I could kinda use the help, to be honest," he said, scratching his cheek while staring down at the boy. "Would ya mind?'

Bo's expression seemed to brighten at the pigtailed character's insistence that he come. "Well, if it's not too much trouble, sure, I'll go with you."

"Great! You're a big help," Silabus smiled, gesturing for Ranma to follow him. "Let's head to the Dome, Ranma. I think I've got a good idea where we can go."

"Alright, now we're talkin'," the eager Grappler grinned.

Gaspard waved to them from behind the Canard shop's counter while they headed off. "Have fun, you guys!"

* * *

After inputting the area words as directed by Silabus, Ranma and the others materialized next to the warp point in a cavern of sorts. For the moment, they found themselves standing on a grassy ledge that was surrounded by rocky walls, along with a waterfall and a pool of water below.

"Hey, check it out..." Ranma marveled, stepping over the the edge of the platform to get a better look below. "They sure make this stuff realistic, don't they?"

"They really do. The graphics team did a great job with this game," Silabus said in agreement. "This is one of the various types of dungeon maps in The World."

"Gotcha," Ranma nodded. "So, what's the plan?"

Silabus stretched his arm out and pointed to a barely visible plume of steam off in the distance. "This map is full of Goblin Guards and Buster Kettles. They're a bit difficult for your level, but you should be able to handle them with Bo and I helping out and you'll get a lot more experience points than you were at the other areas we've been to. This time, though, you're going to attack differently."

The real-life martial artist blinked curiously at his friend's suggestion. "Different attacks?"

"Sort of," Silabus smiled. "This time, you're going to get used to using skills."

"Ranma...hasn't learned to use skills yet?" Bo asked, sounding a bit surprised.

The green Blade Brandier shook his head. "He's fairly new to gaming in general. We've just been taking it slowly up until now so he could get used to the controls."

Ranma shot Silabus an unpleasant look, feeling somewhat annoyed at the novice treatment he was receiving yet again. "I'm fine, alright?! I don't want ya holdin' back with me!"

"S-sorry about that," his friend laughed. "Well, let's get started. There are three types of skills in this game. Normal skills, aerial skills for enemies that fly, and piercing skills for heavily-armored enemies. The more you use your weapon, the more skills you'll learn. If you look in your skill menu, you should have at least one skill available by now."

As instructed, Ranma opened up the list of skills he'd acquired and saw exactly one listed. "Only skill I got is one called Rapid Attack."

"That's what I expected," Silabus nodded. "Rapid Attack is a normal skill, and it's the first one that Tribal Grapplers learn. It lets you dash up to an enemy and use six kicks or punches faster than you normally could. The thing you need to remember about skills though, Ranma, is that they drain skill points, and you have a limited number of those. There are items that can replenish your skill points, but you aren't allowed to use them in Arena battles. This means you'll need to manage them carefully. Understand?"

"Alright, that makes sense," Ranma replied.

"Good, let's head for that batch of monsters over there, then," Silabus instructed, prompting the group to begin moving forward. "Once we engage them, I'll draw their attention so Ranma can fight them one at a time. Just keep mixing that skill into your attacks and get used to it. We've got SP replenishing items, so don't hold back. And Bo, all you need to do is keep Ranma healed. I hope you don't mind."

"No, that's okay," Bo answered, seemingly content with being able to help in any way he was needed.

Ranma slammed his fists together in anticipation and grinned excitedly. This wasn't exactly on par with his real-life martial arts training that his father put him through, but it felt a lot more like it than anything he'd done in-game up until now. "Yeah, this is more like it! Let's do this!"

* * *

At one end of the city of Lumina Cloth, Tatewaki Kuno slammed open the doors to the Icolo guild home and let them creak shut behind him while he marched inside. His earlier confrontation with Alkaid, while pleasurable, had left him feeling a sense of insecurity within himself.

"Surely you jest, my love," Kuno growled, thinking back on what Alkaid had said to him earlier. "Taking enough pride in my throne to keep hold of it even if that means not raising my character's level, that does not make me a weak man! I am strong! I am the Emperor because I am strong! There is no weakness in Tatewaki Kuno!"

"There is!!"

From one side of the guild home's main room stepped forth a towering, dark-skinned character with a head looking like that of a jackal. With a red tail that stuck out from his light-colored cloth pants and a sour look on his face, he wasted little time making his way over to the Demon Palace Emperor.

"And what would that be, Sirius?" Kuno asked him.

The reigning Emperor of the Holy Palace, Sirius, grabbed Kuno by his coat and stared him dead in the eye. "Like myself, you rose above the competition and defeated everyone in your path to earn the title of Emperor. You proved your strength, Tatewaki. So why is it that you've stooped so low as to attack another player outside of the Arena?! PK'ing is beneath us as Arena Emperors!"

"Silence, beast man!" Kuno shouted defiantly, swatting Sirius' hand away from his coat. "Do not preach your morals to me! I find any act committed in the name of love to be justified!"

"Seeking battle against the weak is pathetic!" Sirius snapped back at him.

"I shall seek battle against anyone if they aim to take Alkaid's heart from me!" Kuno exclaimed loudly.

Sirius could see that trying to talk sense into the Demon Palace Emperor was a waste of time, but he had a feeling that was how it would be from the start. Disgusted, he walked past Tatewaki Kuno and toward the doors leading back to Lumina Cloth.

"Alkaid is far too good a woman for a man like you," he muttered as he left, leaving the Blade Brandier alone in the Icolo guild home.

Having become worked up from the argument, Kuno unsheathed his katana and held it out in front of him, focusing his sight on the tip of the blade as he stood perfectly still for a short time.

"I am justified, beast man," he said, solidly believing in himself and his strength. "Alkaid shall come to love me. Of that, I assure you."

* * *

Later on, inside the Dome of Mac Anu, Bo, Silabus, and Ranma warped in next to the Chaos Gate, having completed their training run through the cave-like dungeon.

"Man, even if this is a game, that was a lot of work," Ranma said, exhaling deeply as he hunched over with his hands on his knees.

"You really gave it your all in there. I'm impressed," Silabus commended him. "I think it was worth it though. Not only did you get the hang of skill use, but you raised your character's level a fair amount too."

"Yeah, you're right," Ranma grinned. Just the fact that he was more prepared to battle Kuno again than he was before made him feel re-energized. "Well, I'm up for another round! How 'bout it?"

Silabus could only laugh nervously at his friend's enthusiasm. "It's good to be eager and all, but normal people need to rest and get other things done for a while, you know. I need to go check on Gaspard and then get some reading done for my classes tomorrow. It was fun though."

"Psh, fine," the pigtailed Grappler shrugged.

With his healing duties done, Bo walked up to Silabus and bowed his head politely. "Th-thank you for inviting me along. I had fun today."

"You're the one who helped us out, Bo," Silabus smiled down at him. "Don't be a stranger. Come see us whenever you feel like, okay?"

The young Shadow Warlock was surprised when Ranma suddenly reached out and placed his hand on his head.

"Hey, thanks for helpin' out with my trainin'. I owe ya one," Ranma told the boy. A moment later, Bo heard a light dinging sound from his headset. "That's my member address. If you ever need somethin', let me know. Alright?"

Bo happily nodded in response. "Sure! Well, I'm going then. Goodbye."

Once the Warlock logged out, Silabus and Ranma headed for the door to the Dome and began walking toward the Central District of Mac Anu.

"That was nice of you, giving Bo your member address like that," Silabus said to him.

Ranma shrugged again, not thinking anything of the action. "No big deal. The kid helped me out, so it's the least I could do."

After Silabus met up with Gaspard at the guild shop again, Ranma left and walked off on his own to ponder his next move. Making his way from the Central District over to the Harbor, his satisfaction with his recent training experience gradually gave way to frustration and anger as the thought of Tatewaki Kuno PK'ing him returned to the forefront of his mind.

"I can't wait 'til I can fight him again," Ranma muttered under his breath. He knew he wouldn't be able to get over the embarrassment of that moment until he got the chance to face off against the Demon Palace Emperor again. "I'm gonna be ready next time. You don't just do that to Ranma Saotome and get away with it. That jerk's gonna pay..."

"Hey, you!! Ranma!"

Startled by the shrill voice, Ranma looked over his shoulder and saw a surprisingly familiar red-haired woman running toward him.

"I finally found you!" she cried out, grabbing onto Ranma's shirt with an angered look in her eyes. "What's wrong with you?!"

The novice Tribal Grappler tilted his head, trying to remember just who the girl was. Then, after a few seconds, it finally hit him. "Ah! You're the one that ran into me back then! You got any idea what kinda trouble you caused me?!"

"What trouble I caused you?! Are you kidding me?!" she snarled back at him. "First of all, my name's Alkaid! Got it?! And second of all, I'm the only one who should be complaining here! Thanks to you losing to Kuno, he's gonna bother me even more than he used to!"

"And what did you expect, huh?! I just started playin' this stupid game!" Ranma told her.

Alkaid couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're a newbie?! Why didn't you say so back then?!"

"Why does everyone keep callin' me that?!" Ranma shouted, pulling the fiery woman's hands off of his shirt in frustration. "Look...Alkaid, right? If I knew that Kuno guy was gonna come after me 'cause of that stunt of yours, I woulda told ya I'd just started. How could I have known?!"

The red-haired Twin Blade took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to calm herself down before looking Ranma in the eyes again. "Okay, look, maybe I went a little overboard here. But what're you gonna do about it, huh? You gonna just whine and cry because you got PK'ed?"

"Hell no! I'm gonna enter that Demon Palace Tournament or whatever and beat the crap outta that guy!" the pigtailed Grappler declared. "I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. I ain't lettin' that guy go without some payback."

"Erm...Anything-Goes Martial Arts?" Alkaid asked with a confused look on her face. "I don't really get it, but...you're just a newbie. And you think you can beat Kuno? Hah! That's ridiculous!"

Ranma looked back at Alkaid with an unshaken confidence in himself. "I'll beat him no matter what it takes. And don't get me wrong, I ain't gonna do it for you. I'm gonna do it to prove I'm better than him."

"Oh, really?" the red-haired girl asked, quirking an eyebrow at him as she placed her hands on her hips. "And then what? You gonna stay at that level just so you can keep your Emperor's throne like Kuno does?"

"Throne? Who the heck cares about that?!" Ranma retorted. "I'm not after some dumb title. All I want is to get back at Kuno."

Alkaid's eyes widened as she saw the determined expression on the pigtailed boy's face. Those words and that attitude of his felt nostalgic. The will to fight, just for the sake of fighting and not for the title of Arena Emperor, was something she remembered another man preaching about all too well. The irony of it all was too much for her as she burst out laughing in front of Ranma.

"What? What's so funny?" he asked, sounding annoyed.

"Ahahah! I'm sorry, it's just...another guy I knew said something like that once," she told him.

Once Alkaid had regained her composure, Ranma was surprised to hear the familiar dinging sound of something being sent to him. "The heck...?"

"That's my member address, take it," the Twin Blade smiled, striking a proud pose with the sunlight of Mac Anu's Harbor behind her. "Listen up! I'm Alkaid, former Emperor of the Arena's Demon Palace and the future Emperor of the Sage Palace! You talk like a real man, Ranma, I'll give you that, but you need to back it up too!"

"Uh...huh?" Ranma blinked.

"I'll be watching you, so make sure you kick Kuno's butt! Got it?!" she grinned wildly. "I'll be going now, but if you ever need some help, send me an e-mail. See ya!"

Alkaid hurried over to the Warp Point in the Harbor and vanished, leaving Ranma wondering what exactly caused the positive change in her attitude toward him.

"Weird girl," the white-clothed Grappler said, scratching his head. "Whatever, she don't gotta tell me twice. If I'm gonna take on Kuno, I need to find some teammates though."

Ranma then thought back on the advice his friend had given him. "Silabus said havin' me, a Harvest Cleric or a Shadow Warlock, and another attacker would make a good team. Alkaid said somethin' about wantin' to be Emperor of another Palace, so she probably can't do it....wait a sec, a Harvest Cleric?"

Quickly bringing up his list of contacts, Ranma carefully eyed the one at the top of the alphabetically-sorted list. "I totally forgot. That girl...man, she's got an attitude, but...maybe it's worth askin' at least."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Serpent of Lore, Pi and Yata were again monitoring the actions of the three characters known to have suspicious data when a red frame suddenly popped up on the main screen.

"Hmm? What is it?" Yata asked his assistant.

"This is...my check program!" Pi quickly realized.

The woman with pink pigtails quickly enlarged the frame on the screen to follow the lines of data that appeared.

"What? Another one so soon?" Yata wondered, reading the data carefully. "Mmm, there is no mistake. This character has the same type of data anomaly as the others. Where is he?"

Pi typed several commands into the virtual terminal with the utmost urgency. "This character has just been created. He is going to materialize in the Mac Anu Dome shortly. His name is...Ryouga."

Inside the Dome, the new player looked around at the others in the room impatiently. He had short, rough-looking silver hair and black pants with yellow swirls and other patterns, along with a large yellow cloth that hung down from the back of his waist. His upper torso was completely bare except for a black armband covering his right arm and a black, diamond-shaped tattoo on the left side of his chest.

Gritting his teeth, the character named Ryouga stomped his right foot down on the floor, drawing curious stares from the onlookers.

"Where the heck are you?! Ranma!!"

* * *

**End of Chapter 3**


	4. Building a Team

_**The Call of "The World"**_**  
by rkOujirou**

Author's note: This is an alternate universe Ranma ½ story that takes place in The World R:2 sometime after the events of .Hack/Roots, the .Hack/G.U. Games, and the Returners anime episode.

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is not my idea, nor is .Hack/G.U. The only characters I'll claim are any OC's I may add into this story. Just so you know.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

"I wish Nabiki would come home already..."

In the bustling nighttime city of Lumina Cloth, a bored-looking Harvest Cleric in her white and greenish-blue outfit was slumped over the edge of the walkway connecting the Chaos Gate to the Arena. Without anything of interest that she could do on her own, she was left to impatiently wonder where here sister was at the moment.

"Honestly, if she's going out with friends, she could at least let me know," Akane muttered to herself. "I really wanted to go item hunting today..."

"Yo, babe!"

Akane spun around with an irritated look on her face when a male character suddenly placed his hand on her shoulder. As she soon noticed, there wasn't just one, but two men grinning at her, and they were both a bit too close for her comfort.

"Hey, hey! No need to get all upset, baby!" one of them laughed. "We just saw you there and thought maybe you'd like to hang out with us for a while."

"Yeah, we could totally use those healing powers of yours! How 'bout it, sis?" the other one added.

The pair hadn't done much to endear themselves to Akane, but they had managed to use enough of the words she hated with a passion to completely set her off.

"First of all, my name isn't babe, or baby, or sis, you pigs!" the short-tempered Cleric snapped at them. "And second, I wouldn't be caught dead hanging around with scum like you!"

Akane quickly turned around and began storming off in a huff, leaving the two men feeling incredibly annoyed.

"What the heck's her deal?!" one of them fumed.

"My deal is guys like you that treat girls like that in this game!" Akane turned back and yelled at them. "We're just characters here! A bunch of pixels, get it?! Go find a girl to bother in the real world!"

Her verbal tirade seemingly enough to get the men to give up and leave her be, the turquoise-haired character stomped away toward the Chaos Gate. After that little incident, she wasn't feeling very up to waiting in-game for her sister anymore.

"Maybe I should just log out for today..." she sighed, rubbing her head.

Before she got that chance, however, Akane heard a familiar notification sound in her headset.

"A short mail? From who?"

As she looked over the message, she was a bit surprised to see who the sender was.

"Ranma? That newbie?" she wondered aloud, carefully reading over the rest of his message. With several days having passed since she'd given him her member address, she was beginning to think that he'd never actually contact her.

"Hmmm...he wants to meet me in Mac Anu. But..."

Thinking back, Akane remembered her sister's warning to her about the pigtailed Tribal Grappler. As Nabiki had said, getting involved with him could result in her getting caught up in something messy. Then again, Nabiki had also stood her up for some item hunting today. And just what could go so wrong with talking to a newer player anyway, she wondered?

"I guess...it couldn't hurt to just see what he wants," she told herself.

Meanwhile, in the Mac Anu Dome, Ranma was lightly tapping his foot against the floor while waiting for his potential teammate to arrive.

"I wonder if this is a good idea..." he said, folding his arms as he leaned back against the dome's wall.

Akane certainly seemed willing to help him out before she logged off right after their first meeting, but their personalities hadn't exactly been meshing well up to that point, which left Ranma legitimately doubting whether he should be asking for her help.

"I _really_ wonder if this is a good idea..." he grumbled to himself again.

After several more minutes of foot tapping and watching some of the other characters in the dome interact, a series of blue rings flashed near the Chaos Gate, and from out of those rings appeared the Harvest Cleric that Ranma had been waiting for.

Akane only had to look around for a brief moment before she spotted the white-clothed Grappler next to the wall.

"Hey there," she smirked as she walked over to him. "How's The World been treating you, newbie?"

Ranma's eye twitched at the use of the "newbie" term.

"Don't call me that!" he growled.

"Yeah, yeah," Akane chuckled with amusement. "So, what's up? Need someone to party with?"

"Nah, that ain't it," Ranma shook his head.

Akane shot him a curious look. "Oh? Why'd you call me here then?"

Ranma was still a bit hesitant about asking her, but he was desperate to find some team members for himself as soon as possible.

"Are you below level 50?" he asked.

"Below level 50? Um...yeah..." Akane answered, looking puzzled. "Why?"

"Uh...good," Ranma said, a bit unsure if he was happy or not that she was in the level range he was looking for. "In that case...I, uh...I got a question..."

"And that is...?" Akane asked.

"Would you...join my Arena team?"

The turquoise-haired Cleric blinked several times as she stared at him. "Arena team?"

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "I wanna enter that Demon Palace Tournament, or whatever."

Mere seconds after the Grappler from Canard made his intentions clear, Akane burst out laughing, not believing what she was hearing.

"What's with that reaction?!" Ranma snarled.

"Are...are you serious?!"

"'Course I am! You think I'm jokin'?"

"There's no way you'll be ready for that yet! You'll get your butt kicked!" Akane poked fun at him. "Why would you want to enter an Arena tournament already?!"

"To get back at Kuno for PK'in me!" he declared strongly.

Akane's laughter abruptly stopped at the mention of Kuno's name. Suddenly, she didn't find this quite so humorous anymore. "Kuno? As in Arena Emperor Kuno?"

"Yeah, that jerk," Ranma grumbled.

The Harvest Cleric had been wondering about Nabiki's warning for a while now, and she distinctly remembered seeing the Demon Palace Emperor, Tatewaki Kuno, hurrying toward the Chaos Gate in the center of Lumina Cloth right before she spoke to her sister that day. Then, once he'd vanished, she found Nabiki walking from the direction of the Icolo guild home.

"_Then...maybe Kuno was heading out to PK this guy that day..._" Akane thought to herself. "_I wonder...did Nabiki have something to do with it...?_"

Ranma was starting to get impatient as he watched her contemplate to herself. "Hey...if you don't wanna help, just say so..."

"Huh? Oh...well, tell you what, give me some time to think about it," Akane smiled up at him. "But, for now, wanna come hunt some items with me?"

"Hunt items?" Ranma asked with a funny look.

The Cleric nodded her head enthusiastically. "Come on, it'll be fun! You might even learn something."

He wasn't sure just how "fun" it would be, but if it could help get him a teammate for the Arena then it might be worth the trouble, Ranma figured.

"Fine, I'll go..."

* * *

After entering the area words Akane had given him, Ranma and his fellow party member were warped onto a fair-weathered field with the sun setting in the distance. From where they were standing, Ranma could see only one monster, which was a tall, dark creature levitating just off the ground. It had a number of peculiar tribal markings and ornaments on it, making it look like something supernatural that had just wandered out of a remote jungle.

"So, what're we lookin' for here?" Ranma asked the turquoise-haired girl.

"An armor upgrade for me," Akane smiled excitedly, pointing at the monster ahead of them. "See that thing? That type of monster drops it. We'll just kill those for a while, and we'll get some experience while we're at it."

"Okay...we got a plan?"

"Plan? You'll fight them and I'll heal you. Duh."

Ranma shot the Cleric an unsure look. "That simple?"

"Of course, you dolt," Akane snorted. "Now take the lead so it goes after you and not me."

The white-clothed Grappler threw his hands up in the air in resignation and began walking. "Whatever, I'll figure it out."

Step after step, Ranma moved closer to the strange-looking monster with Akane following at a safe distance behind him until finally they got close enough that the monster spotted Ranma and prepared to attack him.

"Alright, here we go!" Ranma grinned, readying for an attack of his own. "Bring it on, ya freak thing!"

To his surprise, though, the monster wasn't moving in to attack. Instead, it remained in place, shaking while a red circle formed on the ground below it.

Ranma tilted his head as he observed the monster's odd behavior. "The heck's it doin'?"

Then, the red circle that had been under the monster turned into several partly overlapping ones that moved along the ground toward Ranma, who stood still, unsure what to make of it.

"Hey, what's this thing?" he looked back at Akane, who again couldn't believe what she was hearing from the novice character.

"Are you an idiot!? Defend!" she yelled.

Unfortunately, Ranma didn't have the time to process that piece of advice. The red circles moved underneath him and stopped, and before he knew it, Ranma was being pelted with bolts of fire.

"Waaaagh-!"

When the onslaught finally stopped, the health-depleted Grappler dropped to his knees as smoke rose up from his shoulders.

"_Ul Repth_!" Akane called out, hurrying to restore Ranma's health with her healing magic. "That was an attack magic spell! You're supposed to defend against it!"

"Y-ya coulda told me that!" Ranma shouted back at her.

In the midst of their argument, the monster took the chance to begin charging another spell, sending a second wave of fire bolts heading for the Canard guild member.

Not wanting to take that attack again, Ranma quickly got to his feet and began running in the opposite direction to get away from it.

"Hah! Can't hit me if it can't catch me!" he gloated, taunting the casting circle following him by sticking his tongue out at it.

Akane began rubbing her forehead in frustration as she yelled at him again. "Spell circles move faster than you can!"

"Huh...?"

Looking back at the ground, Ranma found that the spell circle had indeed already caught up to him.

"Wait! No-!"

Ranma's knees buckled as he was laid into by another barrage of the monster's fire bolts.

"Auuugh-!" he yelled, his PC body twitching as it fell to the ground.

"_Ul Repth_!" Akane grudgingly healed her inexperienced party member again. "You can't stop its magic attacks! Just keep attacking it and it won't be able to cast as often! And if it does cast, defend!"

Becoming annoyed with the creature, a rejuvenated Ranma hopped to his feet again and rushed toward it to unleash an assault of his own.

"Keep attackin' it?! You don't gotta tell me twice!"

* * *

Currently on one of The World's cave-like dungeon maps, two male characters, one a Blade Brandier and the other a Shadow Warlock, were making their way through a corridor while on their way to the lowest level of the map.

"Phew. This map sure is long," one of them commented.

"Yeah, no kidding," the other replied. "I wonder how much further we've got to g-"

"RANMA!"

The pair of came to a stop as they suddenly heard a voice booming throughout the cave.

"Uh...any idea what that was?" the Warlock asked his fellow party member.

Both of them looked closely as a silver-haired male character then came charging out of the darkness in front of them.

"Ranma! Where are you hiding?!"

Not wanting to get in the boy's way, the two of them moved aside and let him run by, watching curiously as he ran in the direction they'd just come from.

"Where does he think he's going? The beast statue is this way, isn't it?" the Brandier wondered aloud.

Now heading back toward the dungeon's starting point, the recently-created character named Ryouga was frantically searching for Ranma and not having any luck thus far.

"Damn it! Everywhere I go these monsters keep attacking me!" he fumed. "And I still can't find Ranma anywhere! Just how big is this world anyway?!"

Coming to a point where the path split, Ryouga took a sharp turn and headed down the corridor to his right.

"I don't care how long it takes! I'll find you, Ranma! Just you wait!"

But then, as he got further down the path, Ryouga spotted something that caught his attention. Standing next to a blue warping platform was a woman with pink pigtails, and she appeared to be waving at him.

"Hi there!" she called out.

Wondering what the woman wanted, Ryouga skidded to a halt as he stopped to talk to her.

"Umm...did you need something?"

"Not really. I'm just bored and wanted someone to talk to. My name is Pi, by the way," she giggled, trying her best to put on a friendly front. "So, what are you in such a hurry for?"

"I'm looking for someone named Ranma!" Ryouga told her. "Have you seen him?"

Pi promptly placed a finger on her cheek, acting as though she were thinking about the question. "You know...I'm sure I just saw a character named Ranma at the last area I was at..."

"You did?!" Ryouga shouted, his hopes quickly rising. "Where was he?! You have to tell me!"

"Hmm...I guess I could give you the area words," Pi smiled. After motioning for the silver-haired character to get closer, she leaned forward and whispered the area words into his ear.

With a fire lit in his belly, Ryouga immediately turned and began running back through the cave. "Alright! Here I come, Ranma!"

"H-hey, wait!" Pi yelled out to no avail as the energetic character disappeared. "Where does he think he's going...hmm?"

To her surprise, the pink-haired woman soon spotted Ryouga running right back toward her. Again sliding to a stop next to the platform, he continued to run in place while looking somewhat confused.

"Umm...how do I use area words?" he asked.

Yata's assistant was dumbfounded at the question. "Are you serious?! How did you get to this area if you don't know how to use area words?!"

Ryouga quietly pondered the question for a moment. "Well...I just found myself here, somehow..."

Pi placed a hand over her face, trying hard to keep herself calm and have a pleasant demeanor.

"Okay then, here's what we'll do. First, use this platform to go back to Mac Anu," she explained to him.

"Right!" Ryouga quickly responded. "What's Man Canoe?"

"Mac Anu! It's the town you came here from, you nitwit!" Pi barked at him, starting to lose hold of her composure. "Just wait for me there at the Chaos Gate and I'll show you what to do!"

"Really?! Thanks, you're a big help!" Ryouga said excitedly.

After the novice character had warped back to town, Pi was left to curse her luck at the assignment she'd been given.

"Unbelievable. Master Yata gave me a real bonehead to deal with..." she muttered to herself.

* * *

Back at one of the game's field areas, Ranma and Akane found themselves in the midst of battle with two more of the tribal-looking monsters. Confronted with fending off more than one of the creatures at the same time, Ranma focused his attention squarely on the one to his left and advanced on it quickly.

"Take this!"

While the creature began casting a spell, the pigtailed Grappler knocked it back with two consecutive punches and a swift kick from the right. As he'd learned, however, his attacks weren't going to disrupt his target's casting. A string of circles signifying an incoming magic attack soon closed in on him, but he was prepared this time. Curling up, Ranma tightened his defense and rode out the monster's chain of fire bolts as they rained down on him, causing much less damage than they had earlier.

"Hah! I can take it!" the martial artist gloated.

Once the spell had ended, Ranma immediately moved in on the monster again and rocked it with another physical barrage. Two straight punches, a back fist, and two solid kicks finally sent the monster crashing to the ground, depleting what was left of its hit points.

"Behind you! Defend!" Akane called out to him.

Hearing his party member's warning as their first opponent dissipated into the air, Ranma spun around and saw another magic spell heading toward him from the other creature. With little time to spare, he again defended and ate a string of fire bolts, protecting himself from the full power of the attack. Even with the damage reduced though, being the victim of two magic attacks had taken a toll on his health.

"_Ul Repth_!" Akane shouted, healing the damaged Grappler from afar. "Go!"

Recharged again, Ranma decided to put his skill points to good use.

"_Rapid Attack_!"

Dashing directly up to the remaining monster, Ranma connected with six vicious, rapid blows that sent the creature reeling backward. Still, damaged though it was, it wasn't out of commission quite yet. With some of its health still remaining, the levitating monster began casting another spell to hit its target with.

"Oh no ya don't!" Ranma snarled at it. "_Rapid Attack_!"

Before the creature could cast its magic attack, the pigtailed Grappler swiftly closed in and dealt the deciding blows, knocking it down to the ground forcefully as it, too, began to vanish into the air after its defeat.

"Yeah! Showed them who's boss!" the white-clothed character bragged as his other party member strolled over to him. "I think I'm gettin' the hang of this."

"Maybe a little. It's a lot better than you were doing earlier at least," Akane conceded, making sure not to inflate Ranma's ego too much.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Akane noticed something sitting on the ground next to Ranma's foot, and her face immediately lit up as she recognized just what it was.

"Ah! My armor!"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, watching as the overjoyed Cleric reached down and picked up the garment. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. Guess one of 'em finally dropped it, huh?"

"Mhmm! And it was totally worth the trouble!" Akane laughed excitedly before looking back at her partner. "You know, for a newbie, you're not all that bad to party with."

The Tribal Grappler's eye twitched at the mention of the term "newbie" again.

"Gee, thanks," Ranma grumbled. "For a total tomboy, you ain't bad to party with either."

"What was that?!" the turquoise-haired girl snapped back at him.

"RANMA!"

Surprised by a loud voice not belonging to either of them, Ranma and Akane both turned their heads in the direction of the area's setting sun and spotted another character barreling toward them from a short distance away.

"Huh? Who the heck's that?" Ranma wondered aloud.

Having surprisingly little problem recognizing his target's PC character, the silver-haired Ryouga jumped into the air and reached back with his right fist. "Die, Ranma!"

Unsure what they were up against, Ranma and Akane both moved back and out of the way as Ryouga angrily slammed his fist into the ground.

"H-hey! What's the big idea?!" the pigtailed martial artist growled at him.

Although happy that he'd finally found who he was looking for, Ryouga's expression soured as he slowly stood up and glared into the eyes of his target. "Ranma...it's you! I've looked everywhere for you, sacrificing my own happiness to track you down, and now...now I find you having a good time in this game world with pretty girls?!"

"Pretty girls?" Ranma asked, glancing around at his surroundings. "Who're you talkin' about?"

Taking the comment as a personal insult, Akane raised her fist and smacked her fellow party member upside the head.

"Ow!"

"Jerk!" Akane snorted, folding her arms.

Still rubbing his head, the white-clothed Grappler eyed the silver-haired boy closely. "Alright, so who are ya, man?"

"My name is Ryouga Hibiki!" he quickly answered.

Ranma stood there silently, trying to recall if he'd heard the name somewhere before.

"Don't you remember?!" Ryouga growled.

Placing a hand on his chin, the pigtailed character thought hard about the name. In the end, however, he didn't have any recollection of it.

"Nope," he shrugged.

Akane quirked an eyebrow at Ranma's response. "Seriously? He seems really mad at you though..."

Ryouga clenched his fists together, outraged over the lack of care that Ranma was displaying. "I can't believe you! I looked all over the real world for you, Ranma! Then I heard from someone that you were playing this game, so I came here to find you! I even chose the Edge Punisher class when I got here so that I could punish you for all you've done to me!"

"Uh...okay..." Ranma muttered, not caring an awful lot about the boy's ill will toward him. "I still dunno who you are, man..."

"Wait...you're an Edge Punisher?" Akane interrupted, looking over at Ryouga. "Why weren't you using your sword to attack then?"

Clearly confused, the silver-haired character blinked several times as he stared back at her. "Sword...?"

"Edge Punishers use broadswords to attack..." Akane explained, giving him a funny look. "You...didn't know?"

Enlightened by this new revelation, Ryouga quietly began feeling around and tinkering with his controls, much to the amusement of his adversary.

"Oh man, is this guy for real?" Ranma laughed.

That laughter would cease, however, when a very large, silver sword with a dark green hilt suddenly materialized in the Edge Punisher's right hand.

"Uh...that's...a big sword..." Ranma cautiously noted.

After examining his simple-looking, yet powerful new weapon for a moment, Ryouga glared over at his foe and continued his assault from where he'd left off. Dashing toward the confident Grappler with his sword raised in the air, Ryouga was eager to exact his revenge, but Ranma was ready to evade the large weapon.

"Swingin' that thing's gotta be slow. There ain't no way he's gonna hit me with that," the Canard guild member thought aloud.

Once Ryouga was within striking distance, Ranma jumped out of the way just as the silver-haired Punisher slammed his sword down into the ground. Unfortunately for Ranma, he wasn't expecting the shock wave that he caught from being too close to the point of impact and was knocked back and to the ground, taking some damage to his health in the process.

"W-what the heck...?!" he stammered.

Ryouga smiled with pleasure at having dealt the first blow. "What's wrong, Ranma?! Get up and fight me!"

"It's part of an Edge Punisher's attack!" Akane called out to her party member, currently choosing to keep her distance from the battle. "They swing slow, but they have a lot of power and can still cause damage even if they barely miss you!"

The shaken Grappler focused his eyes on Ryouga as he got back to his feet. "So that's how it is, huh?"

Ready for some retribution, Ranma sped toward his attacker, who was preparing for another swing of his broadsword. As Ranma closed in, Ryouga swung his blade from left to right, but his nimble opponent evaded it completely by jumping up into the air and followed with a straight kick to the Punisher's face. Briefly stunning the silver-haired boy, Ranma followed up with three punches to Ryouga's chest and abdomen and then threw another kick at his face. Ryouga had finally gotten under control again though, and blocked Ranma's foot with his sword. Then, with his foe stopped in front of him, Ryouga slammed his broadsword down into the ground again. Ranma managed to avoid a direct blow from the large blade, but he again felt the force of the shock wave and took some damage as he was knocked away.

More prepared for the attack this time around, the Tribal Grappler landed on his feet and immediately bolted forward again. It was time to let Ryouga feel some pain, he decided.

"Let's see how ya like this!" Ranma yelled out at his attacker. "_Rapid Attack_!"

Watching carefully from afar, Akane was sure that Ryouga would be taken out by Ranma's skill. If he was so new that he didn't even know about what weapon his character class used then he couldn't have been very high-leveled, she figured. But, true though that may have been, Ryouga would show that he wasn't entirely incapable at the moment. As Ranma began unleashing his six strikes in quick succession, Ryouga tightened up his guard and defended against the offensive onslaught, reducing the damage he was taking just as Ranma had been doing against the monsters.

"Oh wow...maybe he's better than I thought," the somewhat impressed Cleric said.

After delivering his last blow, a frustrated Ranma jumped back and out of the way as Ryouga slammed his sword down again, this time unable to catch him with the shock wave. Ryouga was quick to move in for another attack though, and raised his sword in the air to deliver another powerful blow.

"_Heh, he just gave me an idea_," Ranma thought to himself while laying in wait. "_If I sit here and defend while takin' one of his attacks, I can nail him while he's unguarded right after it._"

Akane soon noticed what the pigtailed Grappler planned on doing, and quickly tried to warn him not to.

"No, wait! It won't work!"

"Huh?" Ranma mouthed, shooting a confused look in her direction. It was too late to adjust his strategy though.

Ryouga swung his broadsword down viciously at his opponent and broke right through his guard. Taking a direct blow from the heavy weapon, Ranma bounced off the ground and flew back, taking a considerable amount of damage.

"D-dammit!" he groaned, trying to get back to his feet. "What was _that_...?!"

"Edge Punishers can break through defense because their strikes are so powerful!" Akane shouted.

"What?! Now ya tell me!" Ranma yelled back at her.

After knocking his foe down, Ryouga wasn't going to wait around for him to get back up. He hastily advanced on the fallen Grappler, planning to deliver the finishing blow.

"You're done, Ranma!"

Agitated after taking so many hits from the silver-haired Punisher, Ranma was beginning to lose his cool. When Ryouga closed in and took a horizontal swing directed at his neck, the nimble pigtailed character shot upward and sprung off the top of the broadsword to help shoot himself up into the air. Then, as he began falling from the sky, Ranma angrily reached back and readied to put his assailant down for good.

"Enough of this!" he growled.

Ryouga raised his sword over his head to block Ranma's incoming attack, but it would end up being a costly move. Having just started playing the game, he wasn't aware of how much damage his character had been taking, even while defending. When Ranma's fist came down, it slammed Ryouga's broadsword down into his own face, wiping out what was left of his health points.

Genuinely perplexed as to why he wasn't able to move anymore, the Edge Punisher's body faded to a gray color and collapsed to the ground as his opponent landed on his feet next to him. The battle had gone to Ranma.

"Looks like you managed to win, somehow," Akane teased as she walked over to him.

"Whadya mean _somehow_? Like there was any doubt I'd beat this guy," Ranma snorted before looking down at the fallen silver-haired character. "Look, I dunno why you're ticked at me, man, but I'm tryin' to get ready to fight another jerk and I ain't got time to deal with ya."

"That's pretty straightforward..." Akane commented.

"Yeah, well...it's the truth," the Grappler shrugged. "C'mon, let's get outta here."

While Ranma began walking off, Akane knelt down next to Ryouga's character body to give him some friendly advice. "You seem really new, so don't let one loss get you down. Try to learn some more about the game first and then come challenge him again when you're ready. 'Kay?"

With a parting smile, the Cleric in the greenish-blue corset hurried ahead and caught up with her party member.

"What was that all about?' Ranma asked her.

"Nothing important," Akane peered over at him as they walked. "So...you really want to fight against Emperor Kuno, huh?"

The very mention of the pompous Emperor's name put a scowl on the pigtailed character's face. "You got no idea how bad I wanna beat that guy. I still gotta find two team members for that Arena if I wanna fight him again though."

"Actually...you only need to find one team member," Akane corrected him.

Ranma raised an eyebrow as he glanced over at her. "Huh? Why just one?"

"Because...I decided I'd join up after all," the turquoise-haired Harvest Cleric smiled back at him.

"Whoa, really?" Ranma asked, surprised by the sudden decision. "What made ya change your mind?"

Akane simply shrugged in response. "I just think it might be interesting. That's all."

Canard's Tribal Grappler wasn't entirely sure what convinced Akane to join his Arena team, but he felt satisfied just knowing that half of his search was over.

"Fine by me," he said, sounding relieved. "Guess that's that then. One team member down, one to go!"

Meanwhile, over at the Serpent of Lore, the system administrator and his assistant looked disappointed after having watched the battle between Ranma and Ryouga unfold from beginning to end.

"Hmmm...I had hoped that bringing the two of them together would produce some more...fruitful results," Yata said quietly.

Pi felt the same way. "Maybe they need to mature a bit more before they show us what's in that data of theirs."

"Perhaps, but the other two characters have been in The World for a while now and have not displayed anything unusual either," the man in the maroon robe replied. "I wonder if they just need a little push...or will it take more than that?"

As the two of them began pondering what course of action to take, Pi spotted something on their monitor that immediately grabbed her attention.

"Master Yata-!"

Looking up at the screen, Yata narrowed his eyes when he spotted a familiar pair of faces walking toward the fallen Edge Punisher.

Ryouga, whose PC body was still laying in the middle of the field, was fuming after having lost to Ranma, and Akane's inspirational words hadn't done much to suppress his anger.

"Damn him!" he cried out with rage. "I'm going to find you again, Ranma, and next time I'll defeat you!"

"_Rip Maen..._"

Hearing a girl's voice nearby, Ryouga was surprised to find that the color had returned to his character and that he could move again. After quickly sitting up, he looked to his right and found two characters staring down at him. One was a pink-haired girl in a black corset, and the other a taller man with a white and blue coat and orange sunglasses.

"Hi there. What's your name?" the girl smiled, kneeling down next to him.

"R-Ryouga..." the confused Edge Punisher replied. "What did you guys do?"

"We revived you, of course," the girl in black chuckled. "I'm Shino, and this is Ovan."

"Shino...and Ovan..." Ryouga gave them curious stares. "Why did you revive me?"

"Just helping out a fellow player," Shino replied happily.

A bit embarrassed at having been assisted by the pair, Ryouga picked himself up off the ground and got back to his feet.

"Ryouga," Ovan got the boy's attention, "why do you hold a grudge against that player who defeated you?"

Caught off guard by the question, Ryouga hesitated for a moment before answering. "It's...none of your business..."

"That may be true," the man with the sunglasses responded. "But tell me...do you remember why you are upset with him?"

"What?! Of course I...remember..." Ryouga slowly replied, looking a bit uncomfortable as he turned away. "I'm leaving..."

"Wait," Ovan said, stopping the novice character before he could go. "That player named Ranma...he has friends here, as well as a guild to support him. He will continue to grow stronger at a much faster rate than you can on your own, meaning you'll never be able to defeat him."

Annoyed, the Edge Punisher looked back over his shoulder and glared at the man. "And...?"

"We can help you, Ryouga," Ovan told him. "We can teach you about The World, and about how to battle. We can provide you with all of the knowledge and skills needed to fight evenly with Ranma."

Ryouga took a moment to carefully ponder the offer before giving Ovan his answer.

"Thanks, but I can do it on my own."

Despite the rejection, Ovan seemed content with the response. "I see. I won't keep you then. However, my offer remains on the table should you change your mind."

Without another word, Ryouga shrugged his shoulders and walked off, leaving the former Twilight Brigade leaders behind.

"He's seems awfully stubborn," Shino giggled as she peered over at the man with the blue scarf. "Will it be okay? Maybe we should have given him our member addresses."

"There is no need," Ovan calmly said to her. "We shouldn't be too forward in this situation."

Feeling at ease, the black-clothed Harvest Cleric folded her hands behind her back and stared off in the direction where Ryouga had wandered.

"I guess you're right..."

* * *

**End of Chapter 4**

**A/N:** This story has been discontinued. If you'd like to know what would have happened throughout the remainder of the story, there's a synopsis of the rest of the events up through the end under the page for "The Call of The World" on my website.


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